I had one of those brain fade moments last week... made some new
gaskets for the power steering reservoir with cork gasket paper, but
neglected to check the thickness of the cork I was using, as I'd done
this job before on another pump.  Turns out in the generic Fel-Pro
gasket paper assortment there are two thicknesses of cork, and I'd used
up all the thick stuff already :(   results were predictable.  So I
bought some new gasket paper today and now it is amazingly dry as a
bone!  Theoretically, if I can get the fan shroud and air deflector
cleaned and painted (another challenge, the fan shroud has a decent
amount of surface rust in some places, and is too big to fit in a
standard size garbage can, so I might be buying JP a new garbage can
for his electrolytic derusting setup) I could have a functional car
very shortly.

I'm reasonably happy with the general dryness of the car - neither
front nor rear main are leaking, nor do the little seals on the side of
the transmission seem to be leaking (I replaced the tailshaft and
pinion seals before putting it together because I just ASSumed they
were bad.

Now the bad news.  The oil pan on this engine apparently came out of a
car that threw a rod.  JP hammered it back into shape and brazed all
the holes up that he could see, but apparently he missed one at the
bottom of the sump.  Not sure if it's rust or damage, because it was
already painted over by the time I got the engine.  Anyone got any good
ideas on fixing a leaky oil pan that's already on an engine?  Or should
I just bite the bullet and pull it and braze some more?  I believe I've
mentioned here before that I had a dream of owning a Studebaker that I
could park on a clean floor without worry, and I'm almost there except
for this pan...  How hard is it to pull the pan on a C-K in the car,
anyway?  I am using the "R3" motor mounts (I think they are actually
the mount that hangs the sheetmetal on the front of a convertible Lark,
not sure how they got that moniker... AFAIK the R3's just used regular
mounts, yes?) so I assume that I'm looking at either jacking up the
engine, or dropping the bellcrank, yes?

Or, if anyone has a good R1/R2 pan that they'd be willing to sell for
cheap, drop me a line, but I'm not holding my breath.  I'd call Phil
Harris but I think he requires a good pan in exchange for one of his,
and I don't have any extra pans.

thanks,

nate